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A: Keep your solvent and UV-curable printers running, and running smoothly, for as long as possible with a regular and detailed maintenance routine.
The most crucial – and sensitive – piece on any wide-format printer is the printhead. This is especially true of solvent and UV-curable printers. Because the printhead array on an aqueous printer is so densely packed, losing a nozzle or two does not affect print quality to the same degree it does with solvent and UV-curable printers. If you lose a nozzle on a solvent or UV-curable printer, you really notice it.
Solvent ink in particular evaporates quickly, which can then dry and clog the nozzles. Moreover, dust and other contaminates tend to migrate toward leftover ink on the printheads (dust gravitates toward liquid), creating another potential clogging hazard.
That’s why one of the most important maintenance items is to operate the printer in a clean environment. As far as it’s possible, printers should be segregated from other finishing and production areas. Cutting, trimming, and routing create airborne particulates that are looking for an opening to clog.
An air scrubber or HEPA air filter cleans and circulates shop air, providing multiple benefits, which includes extending the life of printheads.
An air scrubber or HEPA filter, like the Predator 600 Portable Air Scrubber, has proven to be a cost-effective and efficient way to help remove potentially harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from the air, and the pungent smell associated with them. It will also help keep dust and other contaminates to a minimum.
Moreover, an air scrubber aids in the drying process by providing and maintaining regular air circulation. Oftentimes, failure in the field can be traced to prints that weren’t thoroughly dried before they were finished, shipped, and installed.
Flush & Filter Routine
Most manufacturers ship their printers with a recommended maintenance routine. Generally speaking, this routine requires a system flush every four hours or so. Flushing the system is vital to not only the viability of the printheads over the long haul, but the quality of the jetting in the short term.
Therefore, it’s imperative to follow the flush schedule, and even to do it more often than recommended, based on the volume of the printing you’re doing day to day. The reason multiple flushes are recommended is because the first flush may only soften and loosen up what’s left in the nozzles. The follow-up flush will clean them out entirely.
If the manufacturer recommends cleaning the printheads by hand, be careful to blot gently with a soft clean room wipe. Do not bear down and rub the printheads or the nozzle plate, because this can scratch and damage them.
Solvent and UV-curable printers have a filter/damper scheme that requires regular maintenance. Always follow manufacturer recommendations for filter replacements and flushing routines to ensure an uninterrupted production workflow.
Some printers have an automated maintenance routine. Even so, you should be familiar with how it works, how often and when it runs, plus any additional steps you need to take aside from the automated routine.
Additionally, solvent and UV-curable printers have ink filters, also known as dampers, to ensure the integrity and consistency of the ink. Just as it’s vital to keep the area around the printer clean and free of debris, it’s equally important to change out the filters as recommended by the manufacturer.
Most printer problems, including damaged printheads, can be traced directly to the failure to do simple, routine maintenance. Though it may seem more economical in the short term to bypass filter changes and regular flush routines, the cost of new filters and flush solution is dwarfed by the cost of new printheads, and unexpected downtime when a very important deadline is looming.